XenForo and Commerical / Paid Addons

This is just something I want to discuss in a public venue and not necessarily on any specific product's website.

I'd like to gauge the general opinion on the number and types of addons that are available for XenForo as of today. The point I wanted to bring up is the number and cost of 'paid' resources that have surged onto the board since they opened the resource manager.

In looking at the cost of some items, the cost seems reasonable. For others, I'm kind of scratching my head as to why I would want to pay for that (or pay that much for so little). I'm much more likely to donate to the author of an addon before I'm forced to pay for it. Especially for some of the simple ones that are easily recreated by any competent coder.

I haven't launched a XenForo based forum as of yet, because I just don't think it's ready just yet for our purposes. I'm also considering the functions that we would need and what it would cost to get them all added into a working forum. If I pick some of my favorite addons from their current list, the prices goes up quickly and for some of the addons, there's no guarantee or support for version upgrades if a addon breaks because of a XenForo upgrade (or other reason).

Certainly, paying for quality work isn't a problem but I just feel that some people will be backed into a corner, driving the overall cost of XenForo ownership up to obtain some added functionality.

While I hope some of the current addons make it into core forum functionality, I also hope that we see a lot more addon creators come into the community to keep prices and terms reasonable for what you are getting.

OK, so that's my general opinion. What does the general forum world think about the current status of commercial or paid addons at XenForo thus far? I just want to hear honest opinions just to determine if my thinking is way off base or if other people have the same opinions as I.

Disclaimer: I provide commercial services in the forum and social media arenas, but I keep my advertisements and forum accounts completely isolated. Additionally, none of the paid resources at XenForo belong to anyone associated with myself or related commercial interests.

I'll admit some of those addons look rather horribly overpriced for community-developed extensions.

Given copyright removal is hardly a decent compromise, maybe RM could be extended so that users can purchase 'support' (even for free addons)? There's a market need for some of the functionalty covered by those mods, and an audience willing to pay for it (as the IPS mod marketplace has shown).

I don't mind the price so much. I think the add-on creators have every right to set price as they like - overpriced or not. There are add-ons I wish I could get my hands on for free (or cheaper) of course Maybe because I've been using many add-ons for free, I really think many deserves to get paid.

ENF said:

In looking at the cost of some items, the cost seems reasonable. For others, I'm kind of scratching my head as to why I would want to pay for that (or pay that much for so little). I'm much more likely to donate to the author of an addon before I'm forced to pay for it. Especially for some of the simple ones that are easily recreated by any competent coder.

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I userstand. As a user it feels that way. As a developer, I dunno lol xD At least Jaxel's collections are still donation based.

Well, I had hoped this thread would have garnered a bit more constructive feedback on the current direction of forum addons and such. There's a new thread at XF that brings up this topic here, but I guess the general trend will be more paid mods/addons going forward.

I had hoped it would have been more of an open community where people create and share their work to improve the quality and type of addons to the masses. Hopefully, the development discussion topics will be rich with information for newcomers to the XF platform.

I agree that some of the prices for certain things do leave me scratching my head (mostly in the Styles area), but overall the majority aren't over-charged for. But then, I only use two mods that are purchaseware - and they've been well worth the money - Dark Immortals Post Rating and Syndol's Bookmarks. Their support is fantastic and well worth the cost. The rest of the mods I use (which are few) are all free and well-supported by the coders who wrote them.

I see nothing wrong with someone wanting to make money for their time, support and lets face ignorant people that we come across daily acting as if the "free" plugin they installed is suppose to owe them something because its not working.

Charging for products allows that support to be given, If people are paying for the product and no one else has taken the time to make and support a free version and there is call for that product then charge what you want.

Although there is a handfull of people that do donate to plugin creators that money doesnt even come into comparison to the money earnt from paid plugin. Generally the people that do donate to plugins are often the ones who just appreciate what the coder is doing and generally do not need support. Its the people that expect everything in life to be free and have no motivation to look for a solution them selves that generally request support and take most of the plugin owners own personal time.

Im all for giving, im a strong believer in Karma and we often donate to charity and do work for free for good causes however nothing should ever be expected for free, when some thing is given then its appreciated more.

I think the only difference now days is that times are hard and they are realising there is money to be earnt and the people that do release things for free often have an alterer motive such as services, other paid addons or premium add-ons.

In the resource manager i only see a couple over $50 , alot of the are $10 which i hardly think is over priced for someones time and effort to support a product

Right now I'm seeing a lot of mods being charged for that really should be in the core forum product. What's worse, you can tell some people are looking at what's there in vBulletin 3 that XenForo lacks, then creating a mod to add that same feature into XF and charging money for it. Sorry, but I might as well use vBulletin 3 instead with it already there coded into the core product professionally.

Some mods are getting silly people want paying for, while some bigger mods are not. But then you have people releasing big complicated mods for free, like the "Portal" for XenForo, and that kind of belittles others asking money for mods nowhere near as complicated. It's all a bit daft with no minimum level set for selling or anything.

I think it's kind of shot XenForo in the foot really, too many people are now jumping on the bandwagon trying to make a quick buck out the forum software selling mods and it's turning thing's somewhat on it's head. I think XenForo wanted to take advantage of people creating mods to help shift more copies of the forum software itself, after all vB.org played a vital role in doing that with vBulletin 3 which the XF Devs know all too well coming from vBulletin. But everything there was pretty much free and very different to what I'm seeing happening on XenForo, I think it was a bad idea to allow paid mods there myself.

I don't use mods, I try and avoid them best I can because half the time they have bugs, are badly coded or whatever else pops up with them later. The modding community isn't there for me like it was on vB.org many years ago. It's just a handful of people wanting to make money from them, you only have a few good coders doing it for free you can count more or less on one hand. I can fully understand why the Devs on XenForo allow paid mods to help sales of their forum software, grow the mod collection on quicker by allowing paid ones that will entice people into releasing them faster. If it works for them, good luck!

You have the problem now though, if someone releases lets say a paid TAG mod. Will that ever become a default feature in XF because someone already created it, but for a price and "could have some legal rights" if XenForo add it later into the core losing them sales. I don't know, I have very mixed opinions about it! I don't mind a mod creator selling something that "unique" and worth the money, but not when it comes to seeing features taken "from you know where converted" over for XenForo selling them, which should either be free, or in the core product.

Think it's irrelevant anyway, still no news coming from them about XenForo 1.2, they won't even confirm it is still coming. I'm seriously beginning to doubt they might be around still in 2 months time, I've had enough of the silent games saying nothing there now, I've better things to do than waste time on a company who doesn't respect it's customers.

Right now I'm seeing a lot of mods being charged for that really should be in the core forum product. What's worse, you can tell some people are looking at what's there in vBulletin 3 that XenForo lacks, then creating a mod to add that same feature into XF and charging money for it. Sorry, but I might as well use vBulletin 3 instead with it already there coded into the core product professionally.

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For most of the people I have been dealing with in the recent weeks, this hits the proverbial nail on the head. Sure, XF has some great framework and newer UI, but there's no point in converting if basic features found in other forum software is going to cost extra to have in XF. Certainly, we can replicate the mods that are being sold at XF, but obviously we cannot do it for free and the end-user still winds up paying more.

I'm seeing more requests for upgrading vb3 sites to vb4 now that it has matured in stability & performance, still minus the CMS. WordPress still reigns king in that arena. Those that had initially asked to move to XF from vb3/4, have all but rescinded those requests.

For XenForo as a company, I realize they are under financial duress. They should consider allowing some cash infusion from an investor to keep things afloat. People buying licenses just to support them isn't going to last. That said, there may be legal reasons as to why things are so quiet.

Overall, in the end, I'd like to see XF flourish. It creates revenue in third party channels, which makes the economic wheels turn in other markets.

Sure, XF has some great framework and newer UI, but there's no point in converting if basic features found in other forum software is going to cost extra to have in XF.

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Missing bits resold bit by bit can be looked at this: luxuries those who want them should technically be fine with paying something for.

Personally I find that a bit shortsighted, given the disadvantage for authors of free ressources. Maybe there could be a system where users could purchase support for mods, even on xf.com? Like users being able to post in the discussion thread only after purchasing 'support' from the author.